TV on Your iPhone

I discovered an iPhone app that can truly make your iPhone 3G a far more interesting little device. The app is called OrbLive. This app allows you to stream movies, watch recorded TV shows (via your media center pc), and watch live TV directly to your iPhone. This app works with the Orb server software that you will need to have installed and running on your Windows XP or Vista PC. (To watch live TV you will need to have a TV tuner card installed in your PC.)

I tried the Orb Free app to test out how it all works and was so impressed with it that I made the plunge and spent $10 for the real app. I can now watch live TV on my iPhone, I can stream my entire music collection to my iPhone, and I can any recorded shows in media center, or movies I have saved on my hard drive. I now truly wonder why I would ever need more than the 8GB of space on my iPhone….

So, is the video quality any good?
The video quality is fairly good considering that it is all being streamed. It is certainly not HD quality, but who needs HD quality on a tiny screen anyway? It is honestly good enough for me. I guess I have gotten used to low quality video on the web via youtube, so the video quality is not a concern for me.

What about the audio quality?
The audio quality is perfect. Playing streamed MP3’s has no lag for me at all, and the sound quality sounds as good as any CD I have ever listened to. I have noticed an issue with the audio being garbled on some of my media center recorded TV shows, but other shows the audio is just fine. I have yet to figure this issue out…..

Does this work over Edge or 3G?
Surprisingly apple has allowed this app, and it does allow you to stream video and audio via the Edge or 3G network. There is no wifi restriction, which makes this a perfect mobile entertainment solution.

This is a fairly basic review of this app. But all in all OrbLive with the Orb Server software make a very clever solution to bring your home entertainment content to you wherever you are.